Improvement in condensers for steam-engines



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM- A. LIGHTIIALI'I, or NEW YORK, N. Y.v

Speciiioation forming part of Letters Pate-nt No. 33,951, dated December 17. 1861.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, of the city, county, and VState of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Condensers for Condensing Steam-Engines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and tothe letters of reference marked thereon, in which- Figure lis a side View, with the side removedto show its interior. Fig. 2 is a plan or top View taken through -Jthe line x Fig.

l; and Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken through the line :c :n Fig. 1.

My improvement is intended, primarily, to be applied to the engines of sea-going steamers to enable them to use fresh water in their boilers; but it is also applicable to the engines of inland Steamers whenthe water is deleterious to the boiler, as is the case on the Mississippi and some others of the Western rivers ot this country, and it is also applicable to land engines in positions where the Water is highly 'impregnated with lime.

My improvement consists of a combination of a jet and surface-condenser in one instrument, the first entrance ofthe steam exhausted into it from the engine being met by a jet of cold water (produced by the condensation of the steam exhausted at each revolution of the engine, which water of condensation is cooled downto the temperature of the sea, river, or other cooling-water) and afspaces at each end beyond the tube-sheets B.

B for the reception and delivery of the cooling-water. y

C is a series of small tubes, of such number and length as to provide collectively a cooling-surface equal to about seventy-five per cent. of theheating-surface of the boilers. They are secured at each end into the tubesheets B B in suchgmanner as to insure their being kept tightly in place. D is a horizontal diaphragm-plate dividing the interior of the apparatusinto an upper andlower section for the purposeherein'after explained.

E E are two seri-es of division-plates, one

.placed in the upper and the other in the' lower section, as shown, to cause the steam and in-A jection and condensed water to travel an extended distance in contact with the exterior of the tubes C for the purpose of perfectly condensing the steam and coolingthe injection-water, so that the latter may be reused.`

F is a pipe for the entrance of the cooling- Water to pass into and through the tubes C, and F is a similar p ipe, through which that water is carried oi 'after having performed its cooling office. For sea andriversteamers this supply of cooling-water is introduced into and taken from the apparatus by means of the chutes patented to me March 5, 1861; but for land-engines the supply may be obtained by means of a'pump worked by the engine. y

G is the exhaust-pipe from the cylinder of the engine, thro ugh which the steam exhausted frorn the engine is passed to the condenser to` hotwell or other reservoir, through which the injection-Water is passed to meet and operate upon the exhausted steam at its entranceinto the apparatus.,

I is the delivery-pipe connected with the hot Well or reservoir above named, through which the Water of condensation and the cooled injection-Water is pumped by an air-pump back to the hot well or reservoir, the water of condensation being pumped back by aforcepump into the boi-ler to keep up the head of water in the boiler, and the cooled injection being returned to the apparatus to renew and continue its operation, as above described..

The delivery-pipe I is, placed at such height in the lower section of the apparatus as to always retain in that sectionV a body of cooled water, not only to act upon and cool the injeration-waterv passed into it from the upper section, but also to act upon and condense By the use of the limited jet described the lows the water in the boiler to'be preserved at a constant height, as no more Water can be returned to the boiler than that made by the condensation of the steam exhausted from the engine.

What I claim as my invention, .and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The use of a combined jet and surface condenser, constructed land operated substantially as herein set forth and for the purpose described.

WM. lA. LIGHTHALL.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS S. Low, JosEPH BISHOP.v 

